Tag: portobello road

Shallowness on Portobello Road

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

Two “look at me I am cool” wannabees:

Man (American, older, sunglasses, hair that does not suit his age) to woman (American, younger, blond, but quite unlike Paris Hilton):
Well, hello are you here!

(yes of course she is here moron, you can see here can’t you!)

Woman: Yes! Are you here too?

(Duh!! Well if he is not here – who are you talking to!)

Man : Yes I am here.

Fake smiles the both of them

Man: Well I will see you next time.

Woman with a “huh – what next time” look: Yes – by-ee

Man : By-ee

And all I thought was: yep. Let’s have a cup of tea.

The Girl goes S&M

thegirlinthecafe 13 Comments

Bob and Mick on the wall.
Red seats.
Red and white checkered plastic cloth on the table.
4 types of mustard.
HP Sauce, salt, pepper, sugar and ketchup.
And S&M in a London mix on the plate right in front of me.
Kinky.

How many Britons points do I get for actually liking that?

If you want it too, you can get it here.
And this is what it looks like. I think that Dutch people generally will like it as we are as kinky with potatoes as the Brits are. Or so it seems.

Have you ever tried a bit of S&M?

Update: Here is the Dutch version (as my mother makes it that is) of S & M

The double moral about Banksy

thegirlinthecafe 7 Comments


Banksy, on the corner of Portobello Road and Acklam Road, taken this morning

Imagine you have just painted the outdoor wall of your house beautifully white this summer. And one morning you wake up and find this huge graffiti on your white wall.

That would piss most people off, unless the graffiti is made by an artist called Banksy. Banksy (wikipedia) is a kind of a legend in London, his stencil art can be found several places in London, but no one knows his identity. Banksy still goes around London (and many other places) leaving his work, but some of his artwork has also been sold on auctions, for prices as high as £288,000.

Which explains why, on the above picture, the people living there chose to cover it with a plastic layer to conserve it, in stead of angrily repainting the wall. I wonder if it raises the value of their house.

Banksy official website
And those people were lucky, it could have been a version with a less fortunate subject …

If you want to look it up, it’s on the corner of Portobello Road and Acklam Road, here it is on a google map.

(And a slightly larger version of the image here)

I quite like his work I have to admit. But what do you think about grafitti?

Love Actually, in a box

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

Love Actually, in a box

I was wandering around the market on Portobello Road again. Mainly because it was lunch time and the weather is so nice at the moment, but also because I was trying to get some pictures of the market for Kate, as she asked for it a while ago (and I am happy to answer to everybody’s photo requests). Did you know that last week both Posh Spice (Ms. Beckham – and who cares) and Justin Timberlake (am not a major fan, but wouldn’t mind spilling my cup of orange juice on his shirt while I come around the corner with it …) have been spotted walking on the loose on Portobello Road?

The pictures I took are not great (taken with my mobile phone), Hugh Grant is not on them, but it gives some sort impression of what it looks like: Notting Hill, Portobello Market on a Friday afternoon in the summer: Portobello Market 1 and number 2.

I am not that big a fan of Flickr, but it is very handy to post to with my mobile while I am on the move. And what I do like is that you can plot your pictures on a map. Here is mine.

While I was taking those pictures, I stumbled over Love, Actually again. This time I found Love in a carton box, for only £1,50.
Sure sounds cheap to me …

I am currently in this mode again, because I have one, and maybe even 2 interesting things to tell you, but I am waiting for a confirmation. So you have to wait with me.

In the mean time: I hope you’re not completely tired of my Love Actually obession just yet. Because I am afraid there is more to come. At least this time I won’t ask you if you ever bought love, for 1.50.

You know you’ve found some of it when

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

You meet this nice street cleaner who asks you how you are while passing him. Good, thank you, and you?
Your busdrive to work passes The Royal Albert Hall, Kensington park, Hyde Park and Knightbridge.
You like the book you are reading.
The sun shines when you decide to go for lunch.
You work only a few hundred meters from Portobello Road where it is market day today.
You wander around on the market and it is indeed a nice market to wander on. (I had never been in Notting Hill on a market day (Friday and Saturday) before).
You find a cool vintage Levi’s jacket in one of the stalls with 2nd hand clothing, it’s exactly your size, it’s a girls jacket and it only costs a tenner.
You buy some sweet cherries in one of the fruit stalls with very nice people helping you.
You feel like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill again.
You realize that you are one lucky pirate, living in a city like this.

And now I realize I should have taken a picture of it, shouldn’t I?

(Yes I know they found a car bomb just a few meters from the cinema I often visit, but I try to ignore worrying thoughts)